The Government has pledged its full support to an Irish-led consortium bidding to run the new .eu domain name registry.

The pledge follows an agreement between the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers to adopt the .eu toplevel domain name.

The Department of Public Enterprise has said it will offer support in whatever way it can to the consortium and will also sit on its advisory board.

If it wins the licence the Irish consortium will invest a "substantial" sum to establish a not-for-profit organisation to run the registry, which it says will employ 100-150 people in Dublin and throughout Europe. The consortium, which features the Irish .ie domain name registry, professional services firm Deloitte and Touche, McKeever-Rowan solicitors and auditing firm BCW Watters, has been working for some time to win the rights to run the prestigious .eu domain from an Irish base.

"This will be the basis for further advancement of Europe as a significant player in the Internet world, thus contributing to economic growth," said Mr David Hearn, Deloitte & Touche European e-business leader.

The endorsement appears to put the consortium well ahead in the race to win the licence for the registry. It is understood that other bids are expected, including one to be launched in London next week. "We particularly favour the pan-European nature of this consortium and the declaration of enlisted support from distinguished public and private sector professionals in almost all of the 15 member states," said Mr Roger O'Connor, a Department of Enterprise & Employment director.

"There is clearly a strong link between the Department's strategy for the development of Ireland as an e-hub and the establishment of the .eu registry in Ireland," he said.

It is believed that the closing date for any bids will be September, with the final decision expected in December. Mr Michael Fagan, the chief executive of .ie domain registry said that he had just returned from a meeting in Brussels where he had obtained strong support from prominent members of the internet community in Spain, Denmark, UK, Netherlands, Sweden, Germany, Italy and Austria.

However, countries such as France and Germany are also said to covet the idea of running the prestigious registry in order to attract internet-based business to their countries.